A baler is an agricultural machine, usually towed by a tractor, that picks straw, or other crop material, from the ground and ties it into round or square bales. The straw will usually have been deposited on the ground in windrows, or swaths, by a combine harvester.
The mechanism used to pick up straw substantially comprises a frame supported on wheels on the ground and carrying a rotating hoe and a chute for guiding the straw picked up by the hoe towards a baling chamber.
The width of the hoe should be as wide as possible to maximise the width of the tract of land from which straw is gather during each pass of the baler. However, the support wheels must be positioned outside the area swept by the hoe and it is their distance apart that determines the maximum width of the baler. As any vehicle that is to be towed on public roads must comply with maximum width requirements, leaving the support wheels in place during transportation of the baler places a limit on the width of the pick-up hoe.
It has therefore been proposed previously to remove the pick-up support wheels from the frame of the pick-up during transportation. However, in known balers where this is possible, the removal and mounting of the pick-up support wheels is a cumbersome task requiring tools.
For example, EP 1179294 discloses a wheel assembly for supporting a frame of a pick-up of an agricultural baler on the ground, which, in common with the present invention, comprises a beam, a support wheel rotatably mounted on an axle carried by the beam, a stub shaft on the beam receivable in a hole in the frame for pivotably and releasably mounting the beam on the frame of the pick-up and a locking mechanism for locking the beam in a desired position relative to the frame to set the height of the frame above the ground. In the latter patent, after inserting the stub shaft in aligned holes in the frame, it is necessary to mount a retaining collar on the end of the stub shaft projecting from the inboard side of the frame. To do this, the operator is required first to gain access to the inboard end of the stub shaft while it is in situ. After slipping the retaining collar over the end of the stub shaft, a pin must be inserted through diametrically aligned holes in the collar and the stub shaft and finally a fastening must be fitted to the pin to retain it within the collar.